Tim Kennedy on health: what the evidence says · JRE #1117
SUBJECT: HEALTH
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
you're trying to make yourself the biggest pebble to raise you to the top of this huge friction um so because most people they actually die of traumatic injuries during the avalanche not from asphyxiation
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Kennedy claimed most avalanche deaths result from traumatic injury sustained during the slide rather than asphyxiation after burial. Multiple peer-reviewed retrospective studies of avalanche fatalities contradict this: a 21-year review of British Columbia and Alberta cases (1984-2005) found asphyxia caused 75% of deaths versus 24% from trauma; a 21-year Colorado review (1994-2015) found asphyxia caused 65% of deaths versus 29% from trauma; and a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis pooling 24 cohorts found asphyxia accounted for roughly 80% (95% CI 74-85%) of avalanche deaths versus about 21% (95% CI 16-25%) from trauma. Trauma's share does vary by activity, rising to roughly 40% among some groups like ice climbers, but across the aggregated evidence asphyxiation, not trauma, is consistently the leading cause of avalanche fatalities. The claim as stated is contradicted by the best available evidence.